Dan Thompson: Considering women shows intelligence

April 1, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Julia Pierson smiles in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, after being sworn-in as the new director of the U.S. Secret Service. Pierson is the first female director in the agency's 148-year history. MANUEL BALCE CENETA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Julia Pierson smiles in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, after being sworn-in as the new director of the U.S. Secret Service. Pierson is the first female director in the agency's 148-year history. MANUEL BALCE CENETA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

If the Chinese were doing the naming, they could call this the Year of the Woman or perhaps the Year of the Doe.

With a bountiful crop of females occupying Congress, a first-ever woman director of the Secret Service and the possibility of another woman permanently heading the CIA's clandestine services, the glass ceiling certainly has major cracks.

It is about time, given that many positions once dominated by men – lawyers, doctors, judges, college presidents, police officers – are regularly occupied by women. Even the phrase "weaker sex" – a put-down aimed at promoting men's physical domination – has been laid to rest by the decision to allow women a combat role in the armed forces.

In colleges and universities, women make up more than 50 percent of the enrollment – and that includes medicine and the law. All-male havens have almost disappeared, and women have driven the grade-point average necessary for admission to elite colleges and universities to impossible heights.

This week, Julia Pierson was sworn in as director of the U.S. Secret Service, the most important position in security and financial law enforcement. She has held a number of administrative jobs, including assistant and deputy director. And she has an excellent reputation, despite some reported grumbling from anonymous agents who contend she lacks hands-on experience in presidential and dignitary protection. Her posts have been more budgetary and behind a desk than in the field.

Of course, the Senate's self-appointed gadfly, Iowa Republican Charles E. Grassley, seemed to greet Pierson's new assignment with a small note of skepticism. Recalling the 2012 prostitution scandal involving agents advancing President Barack Obama's visit to Cartagena, Colombia, Grassley said – in a typical bit of overstatement to the local press here – that the service had "lost the trust of many Americans" and had failed to live up to high expectations. In so many words, he suggested that Pierson would have her hands full in creating the kind of culture "that respects the important job the agency is tasked with."

Right on, senator – like keeping the first family safe. By all measures, that's not only often monumentally difficult but also quite dangerous and stressful. That's not excusing the horribly bad behavior and judgment of a handful of perpetrators in the Cartagena incident. It's just a fact that explains, to some degree, the machismo culture that led to it.

As for the CIA's glamour post of directing the vast network of spies and cloak-and-dagger operations, its current acting head is a woman. According to the Washington Post, new CIA Director John Brennan still is assessing whether to permanently give her the clandestine post, given concerns about her involvement in harsh interrogation tactics following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

No one knows who that current jobholder is – that is, no one probably except every foreign friend and foe with an intelligence service worthy of the name. She's said to be highly regarded. We can only stand ready to congratulate whoever it is for busting through that glass ceiling.

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